[Claire M Jordan]

Yes, that's the one.

I've uploaded the Symantec iso so you can have a look at it (thank you for your help btw). It's at

http://www.imaginary...ish_SrdOnly.iso

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Yes, that's the one.

I've uploaded the Symantec iso so you can have a look at it (thank you for your help btw). It's at

Thanks I will take a look. You can remove the link if you prefer...

[SleepyDude]

Yes, that's the one.

I've uploaded the Symantec iso so you can have a look at it (thank you for your help btw). It's at

Thanks I will take a look. You can remove the link if you prefer...

[SleepyDude]

Hi,

I just tested the SSR11 iso it's based on Windows 8 (Windows PE 4) this one will not work on older machines because it requires some processor capabilities not available in all processors...

The Ghost SR disk is based on Windows Vista (Windows PE 2) it should work but it needs at least 1GB of Ram. How much memory the computer have?

My suggestion, check the memory for errors using Passmark MemTest86 there are two versions available to bun on a CD or to create a bootable flash drive if the computer can boot from USB.

Boot the computer from the CD/USB flash drive and you will see a screen similar to this one:

Let the test run until you see the message: Pass Complete, no errors.... If errors are detected they will be presented in red lines of text.

[Claire M Jordan]

I'm running XP but I suppose that doesn't make a difference when I'm booting from a disc. I've got 3GB of RAM - it reads OK when it posts, but if I can find another blank cd I'll try the memory test tomorrow while I'm having breakfast. Thanks.

[SleepyDude]

I'm running XP but I suppose that doesn't make a difference when I'm booting from a disc. I've got 3GB of RAM - it reads OK when it posts, but if I can find another blank cd I'll try the memory test tomorrow while I'm having breakfast. Thanks.

The RAM test on boot it's very very basic...

Instead of a CD you can try with a USB flash drive.

[Claire M Jordan]

OK, I've run the memory test - it found no problems. I presume it's OK to delete that iso off my webhost now?

[SleepyDude]

OK, I've run the memory test - it found no problems. I presume it's OK to delete that iso off my webhost now?

Good. Yes it's ok to delete.

Can you try this? Boot the computer with the Ghost 15 disk and start pressing F8 to access the boot menu, select Safe Mode the system will start showing the name of the loaded drivers check if you can see the name of the driver where it gets stuck or restart.

[Claire M Jordan]

Ah - OK, yes, I'll try that the next time I reboot. I've only just seen this - I didn't get an email notification for it.

But... I've just now discovered, by trial and error, why the system was refusing to install the Virtual Magnifying Glass. You're going to love this - it won't run any .exe file which begins with the letters vm. I changed its name and it ran perfectly.

Either my PC is crazy (always a possibility) or maybe it thinks files beginning vm are some virus - or is confusing them with Virtual Machine files. Maybe some Windows XP update thinks they are Virtual Machine files. So I shall be interested to see whether the Norton disc is falling over on a driver beginning with VM.

I'm not sure if I'll get to see it, though, because the disc does load to the point where I have an image on the screen, so I probably won't be able to see the drivers when it gets to falling-over point.

[SleepyDude]

Ah - OK, yes, I'll try that the next time I reboot. I've only just seen this - I didn't get an email notification for it.

But... I've just now discovered, by trial and error, why the system was refusing to install the Virtual Magnifying Glass. You're going to love this - it won't run any .exe file which begins with the letters vm. I changed its name and it ran perfectly.

Either my PC is crazy (always a possibility) or maybe it thinks files beginning vm are some virus - or is confusing them with Virtual Machine files. Maybe some Windows XP update thinks they are Virtual Machine files. So I shall be interested to see whether the Norton disc is falling over on a driver beginning with VM.

It could be malware or you have some paranoid security program blocking it.
When you boot from a CD and if there are malware on the windows installation it wont interfere with the loading of the boot CD.

I'm not sure if I'll get to see it, though, because the disc does load to the point where I have an image on the screen, so I probably won't be able to see the drivers when it gets to falling-over point.

I tested this, if you press F8 (not hold) fast enough you should get into the boot menu.

In some machines pressing F8 during boot can give you access to a BIOS boot menu if this happens select boot from the CD drive and start pressing F8 again.

[Claire M Jordan]

Done it. I didn't realise that Safe Mode would take the CD's private version of Windows into Safe Mode as well as the one on the hard drive.

It seems to be stalling on disk.sys (it went too fast for me to note down its file path, but if you need that I can repeat the performance). Then there's a page of general advisory text about testing drivers and hardware etc (including a bit about "enabling special pool" which I've never heard of!), then

Technical information:

***STOP: 0x000000C5 (0x016F00C8, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x8B4F34A2)

Regarding the isntallation issue, I don't think I have malware - I've been *very* careful with the new clean setup, and this vm problem has been present since very early in this reinstallation. One difference is that I have installed Malwarebytes which I wasn't using before, so (even though I can't see it running in Processes except when started manually) maybe that has introduced some block against .exes beginning with vm. It is just .exes which are affected - it has no problem with .zips.

I wonder if it has something to do with Powershell, which I'm pretty sure I didn't install before the crash, and do have now. Here http://windowsfortec...09_archive.html is an article talking about Powershell being set to stop all services beginning with vm, on the assumption that they are all VMWare virtual machine files. I'll have to read it in more detail and see how to get in and edit it, and find out if that's been pre-set.

[Claire M Jordan]

Hmm. The weird thing is that Norton did work and boot when I first bought it, in summer 2009 and I think for at least a month or two after that. But the most recent disk.sys seems to have come on a service pack dated 2008. OK, I didn't start using XP until just before I bought Norton S&R but I would have thought the service pack would have been installed early on.

Is it possible I wonder that when I did the original XP installation in 2009 I didn't add service pack 3 immediately, whereas this time I did it as soon as I'd installed the original (sp2) XP disc, and that it's the copy of disk.sys which comes with sp3 which is causing a compatibility issue?

Btw I installed MalwareBytes because I had caught a malware - a nssty little search hijacker which pretended to be an Acrobat update - but I seem to have successfully cleaned it all out.

[Claire M Jordan]

Aha. at this http://community.nor.../other/page/260 Norton forum site I found somebody with the following problem:

*****

I’ve been a user of Norton Products for many years including Anti Virus, Internet Security, System Works, etc. I’ve been using Norton Save / Restore 2.0 for couple of years and recently tried to use the Recovery Disk. What I discovered is since I setup hardware based Raid 1 and I can no longer boot from the CD. I tried creating my own boot CD with the same results. It appears to stop when it’s loading a Microsoft disk.sys driver. I contacted technical support and after going around and around they suggested I reduce the memory in my PC from 4GB to 2GB. This seemed a little over the top, so I didn’t go there. I’m currently looking at trial versions of other vendors imaging software and I’m having no issues with their Recovery CD’s, etc. Before I eliminate the Norton Imaging Solutions: Save / Restore and Ghost. I’d like to double check with the group to see you have any suggestions. I’d like to try Ghost, but they don’t provide the Recover CD with the trial version. Therefore if I purchase it and it doesn’t work I’m out the purchase price.
Thanks, Dave
PS: I’m using Vista Home Premium SP1 and Norton Save / Restore 2.0 – All patches have been applied.

*****

No suggestions were made. I'm not sure if I have RAID 1 running or not - I didn't specifically install it but maybe it's come with something else. How do I find out?

[SleepyDude]

Done it. I didn't realise that Safe Mode would take the CD's private version of Windows into Safe Mode as well as the one on the hard drive.

It seems to be stalling on disk.sys (it went too fast for me to note down its file path, but if you need that I can repeat the performance). Then there's a page of general advisory text about testing drivers and hardware etc (including a bit about "enabling special pool" which I've never heard of!), then

Technical information:

***STOP: 0x000000C5 (0x016F00C8, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x8B4F34A2)

The same problem here using a different software but it doesn't matter because the Windows PE disks are the same...

The error you are seeing is an indication that the kernel memory pool is corrupt. Normally, this is an indication of a driver bug. However, the drivers shipped with the PE rescue disk are standard Microsoft Vista drivers and would not have such a bug.

The second cause of the stop message is caused by a memory, or more rarely a motherboard or other hardware fault. Unfortunately memory faults are sometimes only revealed by specific access patterns - which is likely why it has never been revealed when running XP. For this reason, memory testers rarely reveal this type of fault.

If you have multiple memory modules, you could try removing each in turn, and then attempting a PE boot. If PE boots, then you have located the faulty module.

Regarding the isntallation issue, I don't think I have malware - I've been *very* careful with the new clean setup, and this vm problem has been present since very early in this reinstallation. One difference is that I have installed Malwarebytes which I wasn't using before, so (even though I can't see it running in Processes except when started manually) maybe that has introduced some block against .exes beginning with vm. It is just .exes which are affected - it has no problem with .zips.

I wonder if it has something to do with Powershell, which I'm pretty sure I didn't install before the crash, and do have now. Here http://windowsfortec...09_archive.html is an article talking about Powershell being set to stop all services beginning with vm, on the assumption that they are all VMWare virtual machine files. I'll have to read it in more detail and see how to get in and edit it, and find out if that's been pre-set.

Powershell is a "scripting language" it's not active until you run it. The page you linked to it's only an examples of scripts that can be created using powershell in that particular case something to end the VMware processes with names starting with vm*

Hmm. The weird thing is that Norton did work and boot when I first bought it, in summer 2009 and I think for at least a month or two after that. But the most recent disk.sys seems to have come on a service pack dated 2008. OK, I didn't start using XP until just before I bought Norton S&R but I would have thought the service pack would have been installed early on.

Is it possible I wonder that when I did the original XP installation in 2009 I didn't add service pack 3 immediately, whereas this time I did it as soon as I'd installed the original (sp2) XP disc, and that it's the copy of disk.sys which comes with sp3 which is causing a compatibility issue?

It doesn't matter what is on the disk, no SP, SP3, etc. the Windows PE used on the Boot Disk isn't affected by that only by Hardware changes/problems until at least the program load completely.

Aha. at this http://community.nor.../other/page/260 Norton forum site I found somebody with the following problem:

*****
*****

No suggestions were made. I'm not sure if I have RAID 1 running or not - I didn't specifically install it but maybe it's come with something else. How do I find out?

RAID is a configuration setup you can do if you have a Hard Disk controller that supports RAID and multiple disks, not your case I presume.
-----

A different test you can do if you are comfortable opening the machine case and working inside is to completely disconnect the Hard Drive keeping the 3GB of memory then try to boot the Ghost disk and see if it works. If it doesn't try the suggestion above about removing the memory.

Do you know if the Norton Save / Restore 2.0 boot disk you have its based on windows or Dos?
In both cases pressing F8 should give you access to a boot menu, reading the options there you could eventually discover if its windows or Dos based. If not tell me the options you see there.

Edited by SleepyDude, 23 February 2014 - 09:26 AM.

[Claire M Jordan]

> If you have multiple memory modules, you could try removing each in turn, and then attempting a PE boot. If PE boots, then you have located the faulty module.

My impression was that Norton had told this guy that their disc wasn't compatible with having more than 2Gb memory installed, rather than that they thought there was anything wrong with the four modules he had. I will say that when I first bought this cpu I was told that it ran better with two memory modules than with three but I later added an extra one on the offchance, and it seems to run OK. However, the timing is such that it could be the addition of the third module which made the Norton disc stop working. There's a wide gap of a year or two between when it last worked and when I discovered that it no longer worked, but somewhere during that gap I added the third module.

> RAID is a configuration setup you can do if you have a Hard Disk controller that supports RAID and multiple disks, not your case I presume.

Dunno - I'm running three hard discs (two in the case plus one on a usb cable): four if you count the fact that the drive the OS is on is partitioned. I *always* keep my OS on at least a separate partition, and a separate disc if the case will take it, so that if anything goes wrong I can reformat the OS without losing any data files (and I make a ghost image of the OS twice a week, and back up my data files every night or at most two nights).

The ghost image I can't reinstall is the descendant of one originally made on a disc of about 80 Gb many years ago (I've been using Norton backup products since about 1997) and forever after I buy a disc that's a bit bigger and then partition it to give me a partition which is the same as, or only marginally bigger than, the OS partition I had on the previous disc. This is to avoid the error you get when you try to install a ghost image onto a new disc which turns out to be 5Mb smaller than the one you had before, without necessarily having to buy a bigger disc every time.

I *used* to have Raid running on this machine, I know I did, but I had a disc for installing it and I didn't do so when I did the clean isntallation this time, because it had come with a motherboard I bought years ago (not one of the Abits).

Anyway, I'll try making a non-Norton Preinstallation disc and let you know what happens - although it might have to wait till Tuesday when I can get to Maplin's. And yes, I'm comfortable with grubbing about in the works. I first built a PC from scratch in about 1997 (not my own - one for somebody else) and I used to be a programmer for the NHS - if you want an all singing all dancing application for monitoring hospital bed-use I can write it for you, but I don't know a lot about the fine details of how the software interacts with the hardware, beyond installing drivers.

[SleepyDude]

> If you have multiple memory modules, you could try removing each in turn, and then attempting a PE boot. If PE boots, then you have located the faulty module.

My impression was that Norton had told this guy that their disc wasn't compatible with having more than 2Gb memory installed, rather than that they thought there was anything wrong with the four modules he had. I will say that when I first bought this cpu I was told that it ran better with two memory modules than with three but I later added an extra one on the offchance, and it seems to run OK. However, the timing is such that it could be the addition of the third module which made the Norton disc stop working. There's a wide gap of a year or two between when it last worked and when I discovered that it no longer worked, but somewhere during that gap I added the third module.

I'm not sure if the Norton Save / Restore 2.0 boot disk is Windows or Dos based, I know for sure that there are problems running Dos tools with more that 2GB! If this is the case you need to remove one stick of RAM I suppose you have 1GB each?
On the other hand the the ghost disk is Windows based and don't have problems with >2GB so this point to other problem, removing the extra memory stick is a good point to start.
Also make sure the USB external drives are disconnected when booting the CD's.

> RAID is a configuration setup you can do if you have a Hard Disk controller that supports RAID and multiple disks, not your case I presume.

Dunno - I'm running three hard discs (two in the case plus one on a usb cable): four if you count the fact that the drive the OS is on is partitioned. I *always* keep my OS on at least a separate partition, and a separate disc if the case will take it, so that if anything goes wrong I can reformat the OS without losing any data files (and I make a ghost image of the OS twice a week, and back up my data files every night or at most two nights).

The ghost image I can't reinstall is the descendant of one originally made on a disc of about 80 Gb many years ago (I've been using Norton backup products since about 1997) and forever after I buy a disc that's a bit bigger and then partition it to give me a partition which is the same as, or only marginally bigger than, the OS partition I had on the previous disc. This is to avoid the error you get when you try to install a ghost image onto a new disc which turns out to be 5Mb smaller than the one you had before, without necessarily having to buy a bigger disc every time.

I *used* to have Raid running on this machine, I know I did, but I had a disc for installing it and I didn't do so when I did the clean isntallation this time, because it had come with a motherboard I bought years ago (not one of the Abits).

Hum, Probably something related to the Raid controller on the other motherboard. Something like VIARaid, etc. a software to control some configurations of the Raid controller.

Anyway, I'll try making a non-Norton Preinstallation disc and let you know what happens - although it might have to wait till Tuesday when I can get to Maplin's. And yes, I'm comfortable with grubbing about in the works. I first built a PC from scratch in about 1997 (not my own - one for somebody else) and I used to be a programmer for the NHS - if you want an all singing all dancing application for monitoring hospital bed-use I can write it for you, but I don't know a lot about the fine details of how the software interacts with the hardware, beyond installing drivers.

Good. I prefer to stay away of all that dancing if possible